Read Online Desperate Rescue by Barbara Phinney - Free Book Online

Biblical prophetess. Noah must have seen the advantage she could give him.
    Eli shut his eyes. Was he doing the same thing here?
    “All right. We’ll go back. But,” she told him quietly but firmly, “you may have to face the fact that Noah could have killed them all. If not here, then somewhere else.”
    With gritted teeth, he said, “Don’t you think you’re just avoiding the issue here? I know you don’t want to confront Noah again, but that could be our only solution. You can’t run away from it.”
    “I’m not running away! But a person doesn’t stick their hand out again after the dog has bitten it!”
    “Not even if it could save someone else? Would you think this way if Trisha were still alive? If you think that these people are beyond help, why did you try to talk her into coming home in the first place?”
    He hated his argumentative words as soon as they left his mouth. Arguing wasn’t going to help them. Or help Phoebe.
    Phoebe. Could she really be dead? Would Noah kill her because he knew his brother would soon find them?
    The sirens grew louder, their baleful whine cutting through the woods. Finally, one stopped. They had either reached the car or the compound.
    Eli kept one ear listening for the other sirens to stop, too. And the other listening to Kaylee’s silence. She still hadn’t answered him. Only the thin line that was now her mouth showed him that she was as determined as he was.
    Finally, she said, “I didn’t know they were beyond help when I first went there. But I know that now. I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear.”
    He stepped closer, shaking his head, trying to sound reasonable, logical, while fighting the images Kaylee had suggested. “You could be right, but don’t leave. You’re miles from the nearest phone and I don’t think you’re the kind of person who would stroll up to a stranger’s house and ask for help. Once the authorities realize that you haven’t gone back through customs, they’ll find you and rehash everything again. Do you want that? You know they’ll wonder if it was you here today.”
    The forest around them was slowly coming to life again with birds determined to spend the coming winter there. The breeze had dissipated the stench of the explosions and one by one the sirens died. For a moment, Eli felt tempted to forget all that had happened.
    With a pained frown, Kaylee shut her eyes.
    Hating that his words, as true as they were, could hurt so much, Eli turned her back toward the compound. It would be easy to follow their tracks through the woods, with bent branches and disturbed forest fall showing their wild flight. And it would be easy to just stand there a moment and hold her close. Until the police found them.
    He said nothing as he led the way back, but his mind whirred. Noah had warned that he’d kill Trisha and Kaylee if she left. Were these explosions part of that threat?
    “Stop.”
    Eli looked up from where he’d been picking his way through the woods. A border-patrol officer stood about ten feet away, leveling his pistol at them. Sighing behind him, Kaylee stepped out to Eli’s right.
    “Don’t come any closer,” the officer warned. “This area is booby-trapped.”
    “We know,” she said, her voice tired.
    The man frowned. “May I ask what you two are doing here? You realize you’ve crossed the border illegally.”
    Eli nodded. “We’re the ones who tripped those explosives. I told Kaylee to run so we wouldn’t get blown to pieces.”
    After holstering his weapon, the officer keyed the mike on his radio and spoke into it, quietly. A garbled voice answered him. Finally, he said to them, “What were you doing here?”
    Kaylee spoke. “I’m Kaylee Campbell. My sister was part of the cult that lived here until she died three weeks ago. Trisha Campbell? You must have heard of her. She was found in a motel in Houlton, dead.” She threw a nervous glance at Eli. “We came back to find his sister.”
    The officer